We tapped a local restaurant critic to pick the best new places to eat in Sydney, Australia—and you're going to love them all. Terry Durack's list ranges from an Italian spot with a great view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge to a hidden Asian gem tucked in an alley. If that's not enough for you foodies, read our full list of the world's best new restaurants or tour them vicariously via our photo slideshow.

His credentials: Restaurant critic for The Sydney Morning Herald; former restaurant critic for London’s Independent on Sunday; author of six books, including Noodle (Bay Soma Publishing, $50). Follow him on goodguides.com.au.

Cafe Nice

The scene: The team behind Sydney’s very Italian Fratelli Fresh stores and restaurants went Gallic with their new 120-seat bébé near the water at Circular Quay. The view from the restaurant is all Aussie—a harbor full of ferries and the Sydney Harbour Bridge—but the delicate Provençal menu will transport you to the flower market in Nice.

The food: A Niçoise blend of French and Italian, including pissaladière (Provence’s answer to pizza), spaghetti with pistou, and ratatouille.

The scene: Tucked away in a quirky mid-city laneway café hung with birdcages and filled with haunting recordings of lost birdsong, China Lane serves lively, modern Asian cuisine like that of its older siblings, China Doll on Woolloomooloo Wharf and China Beach in Manly. But this 140-seat dining room has a kitschy, clubby, sixties-meets-Shanghai vibe, complete with miniature TV screens in the Pirelli rubber–

Dish to get: A feisty salad of slow-roasted pork belly, prawns, pomelo, and jellyfish with fish sauce—it’s a happy mix of just about every known texture (2 Angel Pl.; 61-2-9231-3939; entrées from $10).

**The scene: **Gutsy nose-to-tail cooking in the gastronomic heartland of Surry Hills. Popular Irish-born chef Colin Fassnidge—­who made a name for himself with his 12‑hour slow-cooked lamb shoulder at Paddington’s highly rated Four in Hand Dining Room—is serving all manner of innards in this stripped-down, low-tech warehouse space with room for 75 at a bar, a kitchen counter, and a few low-slung banquettes.

The scene: Having cut his teeth in some of the world’s finest dining rooms—from Rockpool in Sydney to Pharmacy in London—chef Mike McEnearney decided to “get real.” So he set up a 120-seat self-serve breakfast and lunch canteen in an all-Australian design warehouse in the suburb of Rosebery, where he began making ethically sourced dishes that are served on enameled-tin plates.

The scene: After setting up three of Melbourne’s best-loved Spanish restaurants, chef Frank Camorra has finally hit Sydney’s Surry Hills. And he’s done it in style, with an always-packed, bodega-like space fitted with a generous wood bar for tapas dining, as well as slide-in black-leather booths and a mix of high and low tables grouped around a busy kitchen (about 90 seats in all).

The food: A mod-meets-trad take on Catalan and Spanish cooking, from individual tapas (anchovies with smoked tomato sorbet) to larger, shareable racione (octopus with warm potatoes and smoky paprika).

**The scene: **What was once a heaving basement nightclub in downtown Sydney is now a moodily lit, 240-seat den devoted to dim sum and serious cocktails, with a clubby Shanghai teahouse vibe. A mix of soul and R&B hums away as the dinner crowd shifts from city suits to a younger, slinkier set as the night wears on.

The food: New-wave and classic Cantonese, from top-level dim sum to lacquered roast duck from young chefs Dan Hong and Jowett Yu, and former London Hakkasan dim sum chef Eric Koh.

**The scene: **American chef Gregory Llewellyn met Australian Naomi Hart when both were working at the acclaimed Fresco by Scotto, on New York’s East Side. Llewellyn got the girl, and Sydney got itself some darn fine down-home American cooking in a newly emerging dining strip in the city’s Inner West. The rollicking 45-seat shopfront space is filled with bare tables, utilitarian chairs, recycled wood, loud music, and an equally loud young local crowd.

The food: Brooklyn-ized and modernized Southern American staples such as oyster po’boys, pulled pork with maple bacon, and a peanut butter and banana sundae.

**The scene: **The fine line between wine bars with food and full-fledged restaurants with wine gets blurrier with this cozy 60-seat venture from chef Brent Savage and sommelier Nick Hildebrandt, the team behind the high-flying Bentley Restaurant & Bar. While the 500-strong wine list makes it easy to find a perfect match, it’s clear that the lion’s share of the stylish Potts Point crowd is here for highly seasonal shared plates.

The food: Vegetables star in light and picture-pretty dishes, including grilled baby sweet corn with smoked tarragon curd and pickled and roasted beets with heirloom beans and blue cheese.

The scene: Farm-to-table eating gets quite literal at this charming, woodsy, Nordic-influenced 35-seat dining room in Sydney’s Inner West district. Not only does the restaurant grow much of its own food—in the backyard herb garden (complete with working beehive) and in a vegetable patch in the Southern Highlands—but the chefs bring the small-yet-dazzling dishes to the table themselves.

The food: Much-lauded young chefs Daniel Puskas and James Parry’s offerings range from Coorong hanger steak with smoky cabbage and mustard leaves to an intriguing veggie dessert of beets, mead, steamed brioche, and honey ice cream.

The scene: There’s a lot of wood at this smart new 180-seat Rocks district restaurant just off the foyer of the Four Seasons Hotel—in the floor, the chairs and tabletops, and stacked in piles of apple, spruce, and ironbark waiting to fuel the wood-fired grill and oven. Even the air is redolent with the heady scent of burning birch chips.

The food: Needless to say, the emphasis is on wood grills and wood roasts, which makes it a good place for things like steak and fish.